Overtime: High school athletics in Connecticut

It seems like we have been in a never-ending cycle of controversy in high school sports the last two weeks.

Finally, we have someone doing something right, and not surprisingly it is the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference. Executive secretary John Kuczo just told me that the conference baseball tournament will be going to a Monday-Tuesday-Thursday format next year.

This year the league scheduled its final for Saturday, but because of rain the semifinals were played on Saturday and the final on Sunday. With the CIAC playing the first two rounds of the state tournament on Monday and Tuesday, the two teams that reached the league final, Staples and Westhill, were forced to play three games in three days. Not surprisingly, both were bounced in the first round of the CIAC Tournament after having to use their No. 3 starters.

Kuczo admitted that the use of Harbor Yard had been the tail wagging the dog, taking priority over giving its member schools the best chance to succeed.

Many other leagues end their conference tournaments on Thursday to ensure teams are rested for the CIAC playoffs.

The FCIAC Tournament will have to use back to back days in the first two rounds, but teams that get to the finals will be able to get away with using their top two starting pitchers to try and win the title.

In what has seemed like a period of insanity the last fortnight, credit the FCIAC for recognizing an error and correcting it.

The Westhill softball team heads to the field for a final intrasquad game after learning that its season had ended. Kathleen O’Rourke/Staff Photographer

The Westhill High School softball team won its second straight Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship Saturday afternoon.

But its finest moment came today, just minutes after the players learned that 2 1/2 hours earlier, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference had ended their season, overturning a successful protest the Vikings had made the day before after a 4-3 loss to Norwich Free Academy in the second round of the state tournament.

The details have been well-documented — there is a follow-up story in tomorrow’s Advocate.

And because of article 6.3 in the CIAC guidelines, which does not allow for protests in state playoff games, the correct call was made.

We will save for another day the CIAC’s ridiculous policy, which can be filed under article 63 of why it is one of the most feckless organizations in the country.

The bottom line is the CIAC does not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the Westhill softball team.

Few do.

After 20 players learned their year had ended and seven seniors — Brittany Longo, Kylee Ruther, Lynette Martinez, Hannah Goldstone, Julie Osipow, Taylor Kurtz and Nicole Memale — discovered their careers were over, everyone was crestfallen. There were many tears and hugs as the team’s coach, Tom Pia, and the school’s athletic director, Mike King, who had relayed the news, stood silently and watched.

But like a rainbow after a storm, 10 minutes later the players were laughing and smiling. They arrived at the field in their uniforms — King and Pia had decided earlier to wait and tell the team together of the ruling — and no matter what there was going to be one last game.

Players were out of position — Longo was in center field, Osipow pitched, Julianne Vincent was at catcher and Martinez was at first base.

It was softball at its most basic, salve to a deep wound.

“No matter what happens, we’re one big family,” Ruther said.

Defending champions are often cast as enemies by virtue of their status, but there were no ill words spoken about the Vikings, largely because of the popularity of their players.

Today’s display was one of the more inspirational moments in high school sports I have witnessed in recent memory.

The standings may say that the Vikings’ final game was a loss.

But to anyone who was at their field yesterday, it was a great big W.

The Westhill High School softball team’s season ended today — with the players taking part in an intrasquad scrimmage. Moments earlier, coach Tom Pia had to tell his team that Norwich Free Academy’s 4-3 victory stands because according to CIAC rules, schools are not allowed to stage protests in state tournament games.

There were numerous mistakes made yesterday that contributed to an emotional rollercoaster for a team that went through a season of ups and downs.

There will be a complete story in tomorrow’s Advocate and a commentary about what makes this Westhill team so special posted here tonight.

Unless its gets an 11th hour reprieve, the Westhill High School softball team’s season is over. According to Vikings coach Tom Pia, the CIAC has upheld NFA’s protest this morning and told the team not to make the trip to Stamford.

Pia said in the state tournament packet it states that even if an umpire makes a mistake, the results on the field stand.

Pia said the CIAC is getting hold of the official who upheld the Vikings’ protest yesterday. A final decision is supposed to be made by 1 p.m.

I will stay on top of this story and post an update as soon as I have it.

The saga following yesterday’s Westhill-NFA state tournament softball game continues. Westhill coach Tom Pia just called: NFA is appealing to the CIAC the protest that the Vikings won and does not want to come back to Stamford today to complete the game. Westhill is awaiting a ruling and I will post the outcome as soon as I have it.

The fallout from the successful protest after its apparent 4-3 loss in the second round is the talk of the local sports community this morning. Right now the game story is No. 1 on the most e-mailed list on the Advocate web site.

Rather than rehash what happened, here is the link to the story: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localsports/ci_12505487

A couple of points before we see what happens with today’s possible compelling continuation of the game:

* A lot is being made of Westhill coach Tom Pia using the word “pinch” runner instead of “courtesy” runner when he inserted Cassandra Kish into the game after Jen Joseph’s single, and then failed to re-enter her. While it certainly appears to be getting into picky semantics, Pia did open up a technicality by using the wrong term.

* The person who comes out the worst in all of this is NFA coach Bryan Burdick, who outsmarted himself by waiting over an inning before contesting that Joseph should not have been allowed to continue to pitch. Burdick should have protested as soon as Joseph came out to pitch the seventh inning. By waiting until a situation where he could rattle the Vikings, he did not exactly come out as a role model for sportsmanship to his players. His comment to me about the delay — ”I’m a forgetful individual sometimes” — is most telling.

* A lot of people are criticizing home plate umpire Tommy Oliver for not knowing the rules. Oliver is a good umpire with a strong reputation, and the fact that it took a 20-minute conference call with a CIAC official, who had to bring in a rules interpreter, tells you what an unusual situation this was.

If Oliver did anything wrong, he should have allowed Joseph to continue pitching and then let NFA make the protest.

Now we await the next chapter in one of the most bizarre stories I have ever covered.

(This is the latest in a series of entries by guest bloggers throughout the high school spring sports season. Mike Nemchek and his daughter Sammi, who is entering her fourth year as a starter on Trinity Catholic’s softball team, explore the topical nature of the parent-athlete dynamic.  Mike coached many of the city’s top players in youth leagues, including Sammi.)

By Mike Nemchek

Congratulations to Tom Pia and his Westhill Vikings, who just won their second consecutive FCIAC softball championship. The residents of Stamford should be very proud of the back-to-back accomplishment.

In addition, out of the eight teams that qualified for the FCIAC Tournament, three were our local teams, so perhaps the current signs at the end of the Stamford exit ramps on I-95 should be changed. Perhaps they should read, “Stamford, The City Whose Three High School Softball Teams Really Work.”

As the winning run crossed home plate, courtesy of Hannah Goldstone’s base hit in the bottom of the seventh inning, it occurred to me the only thing remaining in the softball season is the state tournament.

Translation: the end of my daughter Sammi’s high school softball career is approaching, but I don’t know when that last game will be and I don’t like not knowing.

I need to mentally prepare myself for such an event to avoid a public meltdown when that final out is recorded, but no one I know has a crystal ball. Ideally, it will be on either June 12 or 13 at DeLuca Field in Stratford in the state final, and ideally the last game is a victory, but currently those are unknowns.

The knowns are the regular season, the FCIAC Tournament and qualifying for the state tournament.

Unfortunately, now the uncertainty begins, but no matter how it turns out, I would like to thank my daughter Sammi and all of her teammates and coaches for four years of wonderful memories.

Best of luck to Trinity, Stamford High and Westhill in the state tournament.

Let the games begin!

There was the prom on Friday and the softball team’s FCIAC championship yesterday. But a perfect weekend for Westhill High School was spoiled this afternoon when the baseball team lost to Staples in the conference final for the second straight year, 5-3.

The Wreckers’ Jimmy Sikorski pitched a complete-game three-hitter, most valuable player Jack Hennessy had three hits and scored twice, while left fielder MIke Rutski snuffed out a rally in the sixth inning by throwing out the Vikings’ Steve Rivera at the plate.

Westhill did all its scoring in the fourth inning, overcoming a 3-0 deficit. The Vikings took advantage of two errors and got an RBI single from Alex Rough and Bobby Horn’s sacrifice fly.

Staples became the first repeat champion in the sport since Trinity Catholic won back-to-back titles in 1999-2000.

Both teams must bounce back tomorrow in the opening round of the state tournament, their third games in three days.

Marist senior shortstop Melissa Giordano was named a third team Academic All-American by ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA on Wednesday. Giordano, a former Stamford High School star, is the second Marist athlete to earn the All-American status, as well as the second softball player in program history to garner the award.

“I am proud to be a part of such an elite group of players that are very accomplished on and off the field,” Giordano said in a press release released by the school. “It speaks very highly of the education I received from Marist College. It is an honor to be recognized for my academics.”

Giordano was the 2009 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year. She led the conference in batting average (.429), on-base percentage (.491), hits (66), runs (42) and doubles (19). She added eight home runs and 21 runs batted in.

Additionally, Giordano was named First Team All-MAAC and is a three-time member of the MAAC All-Academic Team. She set Marist single-season records in batting average and doubles.

Marist completed the 2009 season with a 16-33 record.